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Northstandboy

Northstandboy

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Very very worrying situation in Afghanistan, the Taliban now control all major cities and looks like Kabul will fall within a few days.

They have taken control much quicker than expected, I saw reports that the US expected them to control the country in a year, but it's been just weeks.

We are evacuating British and duel nationals but even this is operation is expected to come under Taliban threat, or the airport overrun by civilians trying to get on planes.

A concern of mine is that they do not try to take control in Pakistan. But maybe that will never happen? Or maybe they already do?

RIP Afghanistan, after all the years it's taken to secure the country and its fallen in weeks.
 
They won’t take control of Pakistan. The Pakistani government and ISI have trained and supported the Taliban for decades.

It’s a shame it’s come to this and having lost a friend to suicide recently as a result of what he saw in Afghanistan it’s just a depressing state of affairs and shouldn’t have been allowed to happen. The loss of life, now for nothing is criminal.

Unfortunately Trump wanting troops out, Biden enacting and Britain following has caused this vacuum and now we are where we are. Quite what the negotiating teams were doing during the talks they had who knows!
 
carefreeoufc said:
They won’t take control of Pakistan. The Pakistani government and ISI have trained and supported the Taliban for decades.

It’s a shame it’s come to this and having lost a friend to suicide recently as a result of what he saw in Afghanistan it’s just a depressing state of affairs and shouldn’t have been allowed to happen. The loss of life, now for nothing is criminal.

Unfortunately Trump wanting troops out, Biden enacting and Britain following has caused this vacuum and now we are where we are. Quite what the negotiating teams were doing during the talks they had who knows!
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Sorry to hear about friend, very sad.

It's difficult, we can't control Afghanistan forever and when the US said they would leave, we had to due to the loss of man power.
 
eaststandboy said:
Sorry to hear about friend, very sad.

It's difficult, we can't control Afghanistan forever and when the US said they would leave, we had to due to the loss of man power.
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Cheers!

I don’t disagree. You do kind of have to lay in your bed though when you’ve made it. There’s been very, very little loss of life in recent years in Afghan while peacekeeping and working to transition over to the Afghan government. The UN had a 10 year plan (due to end in 2024) which allied forces could have feasibly aligned to.

Instead Trump opted to pull everyone out and, in my opinion, it was nothing more than a political move to remain popular with his voters. He did exactly the same in Syria where US forces abandoned the country and the Turks moved in.
 
As we speak, Kabul is being taken over by the Taliban.

Shocking how quick they have taken over the country
 
Nobody "wins" in Afghanistan.
The Taliban unite when someone invades, once they don`t have a single enemy to fight they go back to tribal disagreements that are centuries old.
We (The West) can`t impose our values on them because we don`t understand them, we have a habit of removing their strong leaders because we think they are "bad".
We (The West) either take over and run such backward sh!tholes for the genuine benefit of most of their peoples - and get accused of being nasty colonialist imperialists - or we don't, there are no middle ways in this.

Rory Stewart has spoken well about the situation over this weekend......... lad should have been Conservative leader IMHO but there we go.
 
It goes to show that you can’t kill an ideal. The Taliban weren’t ever going to go away no matter how many insurgents you dispatch. Their ideals - no matter how backward, draconian and morally opposed they may seem to us - lived on in the hearts and minds of many. How they have stayed so resolute and have been able to batter the Afghan army battle after battle seems curious to me. Who is backing and training them?

The goalposts were moved back in 2001-02. Bush and co went into Afghanistan to find Bin Laden as they claimed the Taliban were hiding Al Qaeda terrorists. When that didn’t occurred, they ‘toppled’ the Taliban and claimed a victory. There’s never any victory in these sort of uprisings though. For a few weeks of the local population driving around the streets celebrating, you then have years of power struggles where the previous status quo actually looks more appealing. Libya is the latest example. Gaddafi was a tyrant but he was the glue that held the nation together. The present day Libya is a stones throw from a failed state.

With the Taliban returning to Afghanistan, it shows what a waste of lives, money, resources and energy the last 20 years have been.
 
The Taliban have been planning this for a year+ once the pull out dates were sorted, so not surprised.
 
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What's our Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab MP, had to say about the events over the last 11 days?
 
The generation that has benefited from the opportunities granted them since the toppling of the Taliban are only in their 20's. Twenty years isn't enough time for these people to progress into leadership positions.

The warlords and tribal leaders from 20 years ago are still alive, still powerful. Still barbaric. Still influential.
 
It a complete s**t show. What was Biden thinking? If he wanted out he should have done it gradually, re assessing as he went along, not cut and run! Pity the poor Afghans.
 
QR said:
It a complete s**t show. What was Biden thinking? If he wanted out he should have done it gradually, re assessing as he went along, not cut and run! Pity the poor Afghans.
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The US had already been withdrawing gradually prior to Biden taking power as Trump had started the process long before. It was a continuation of the same process under Biden. The Taliban were always going to regain control.
 
Marked Ox said:
The US had already been withdrawing gradually prior to Biden taking power as Trump had started the process long before. It was a continuation of the same process under Biden. The Taliban were always going to regain control.
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So do you think that is what Biden was advised?
 
Marked Ox said:
The US had already been withdrawing gradually prior to Biden taking power as Trump had started the process long before. It was a continuation of the same process under Biden. The Taliban were always going to regain control.
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Actually the complete withdrawal of US troops was first announced by Obama in May 2014 and has been US policy ever since. Biden is just finishing the job.

www.rand.org

Trump's Latest Move on Afghanistan Is a Repeat of Obama's

So far, both Presidents Obama and Trump have chosen “not to lose” in Afghanistan. As time goes on and the American public's patience grows shorter, this choice becomes more difficult.
www.rand.org www.rand.org
 
QR said:
So do you think that is what Biden was advised?
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Yes unless the US wanted to be involved for another 20+ years. I've seen reports that the Pentagon were estimating a year for the Taliban to take control though.
 
Afganistan has never been a "popular" war, whether for Russia or Allied Forces. I am sure the powers that be will find another enemy or war to throw billions at their armed forces and defence contracts.

China, back to Russia, North Korea?
 
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